Farmer Drops Dib, Easily Wins Decision, IBF 130-Pound Title

Tevin Farmer earned the convincing decision and the world title he deserved this time.

The southpaw from Philadelphia easily out-boxed Australia’s Billy Dib to win a unanimous decision in their 12-round, 130-pound title bout Friday night at Technology Park in Redfern, Australia, a Sydney suburb. Farmer’s intelligence, movement and activity enabled him to out-land Dib during an often-ugly bout filled with clinches.

The 28-year-old Farmer (26-4-1, 5 KOs, 1 NC) won the 130-pound title the IBF stripped from Japan’s Kenichi Ogawa for failing a performance-enhancing drug test following his controversial split-decision defeat of Farmer on December 9 in Las Vegas. The 32-year-old Dib, a former IBF featherweight champion, slipped to 43-5.

Dib was aggressive during the 12th round, but couldn’t land anything to hurt Farmer.

Farmer’s left uppercut connected just prior to the midway mark of the 11th round. Dib fell to the canvas with 1:26 to go in the 11th, but it was ruled a slip.

Farmer seemed to hurt Dib when he backed him into the ropes with a left hand later in the 11th.

Farmer landed a straight left hand that knocked out Dib’s mouthpiece late in the 10th round. He continued controlling the distance against Dib in that round and clearly was winning the bout by then.

Farmer floored Dib with a left hook when there were 33 seconds to go in the ninth round. Dib answered Missailidis’ count at seven and made it to the end of the round.

Farmer hit Dib with a right hook at the midway mark of the eighth round. Dib had difficulty during much of that round trying to keep Farmer in front of him and Farmer wa

Farmer’s left hand landed flush with just under a minute remaining in the seventh round. Dib hit Farmer with a solid left hook less than 30 seconds into the seventh.

Farmer connected with two straight left hands just prior to the midway mark of the sixth round. Toward the end of the sixth, Farmer’s left-right combination landed cleanly.

Farmer landed a straight left hand about 30 seconds into the fifth round. Farmer backed up Dib with another straight left less than 30 seconds later.

Farmer managed to avoid clinches better in the fifth round and controlled it. When they weren’t wrestling, Farmer landed to Dib’s body during the fourth round.

Dib connected with a right hand and followed it up with a left hook with just over two minutes to go in the third round.

Dib tried to rough up Farmer very early in the second round. Referee Ignatius Missailidis warned Dib 25 seconds into the second round for hitting when he called for a break.

Dib and Farmer got tangled up several more times in the second round. Farmer connected with a counter left hand late in the second round.

Farmer fought from a favorable distance throughout the first round, when he pumped his jab and kept away from Dib’s right hand.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.